The Benefit of Cooking Lessons
by Stunning Sunset
Summary: In which Sakura finally puts to use her cooking skills, drilled into her by Ino...for a most unusual person. Crashing at a random person's place after a long shift at the hospital suddenly wasn't such a good idea...Not when it gave birth to crazy rumours.


Once again, IbiSaku has reeled me in…And since I finally had time to finish this little baby, I'm posting it now for you guys. Happy Holidays!

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Sakura was pulled forcefully from her patient by a firm hand the moment his injuries were healed enough so that he wouldn't die in the next hour.

"Go home, Sakura-chan."

"But Shishou! I have to finish healing him!" she protested, trying to get back to the man's side.

"_I _will make sure he heals nicely. _You _go back home and rest. And don't you come back for at least 48 hours. That's an order."

"Shishou!" she exclaimed, aghast. Didn't she understand that she was needed here?

"Sakura-chan, you've been working for 72 hours straight without sleep or food. You need to rest before you put someone in danger. Go home."

And with that, she was booted out of the operation room. Back in the corridor, she pouted at the swirling lights above her. Despite her stubbornness, the logical part of her brain told her that Tsunade was right and she really should go home and sleep for at least 16 hours straight.

She didn't bother to take off her bloody lab coat and trudged out of the hospital tiredly, taking to the roofs as soon as the cool night air hit her cheeks.

Yet once out, it didn't take long for the remaining traces of adrenalin to leave her body, leaving her utterly tired; so tired, in fact, that the world began to swing before her eyes and she realized that she wouldn't be able to make it home. She should have stayed at the hospital to sleep in an empty bed, but the hospital was too far to go back to.

_Gotta crash somewhere fast…_

She picked up on a chakra signature that felt familiar and, without bothering to investigate whose it was, headed straight for it. Who lived in this part of town? Hum…Well, whoever it was would soon get a pinkette crashing on their sofa.

As she entered the apartment through a window, pretty much subconsciously disabling the traps, she noted that it smelled clean—not Kakashi or Naruto, definitely. Her mind shut down moments later as, after managing to shuck her lab coat, she fell face first onto the large couch. It was so comfortable…

She drifted off to sleep in an awkward position, barely noting that the proprietor of the apartment would be surprised to see her there on the morrow.

-:-

Said proprietor of the apartment, having sensed someone entering his home, got up and walked into the living room, where soft snores could already be heard.

Who could have come in just to sleep?

A glance at the couch quickly answered that question.

_Haruno-san._

Well, while he did wonder why she chose _his_ apartment of all the possible ones to crash in, he supposed that he could let her sleep. She was even more of a workaholic than him, which was saying something. Still, if she slept on that couch in that position, she would wake up feeling just as tired as when she got to sleep. Well, due to his height, he had a king size bed. If he put her on one side of the bed and he went to sleep on the other, they wouldn't touch each other and he would be able to get up early without feeling guilty for leaving her to sleep on the couch.

-:-

There were voices; damn, she needed more sleep. Couldn't they shut up?

"You are required at headquarters immediately."

Her warm pillow rumbled.

"Alright. Let me get dressed."

Then her pillow swept out from under her gently and she was settled back against pillows that were, if very nice, not as satisfying as her previous one. She frowned at that thought, feeling tiredly for her pillow as a murmur of disagreement rose in her throat.

The covers were tucked around her gently by big hands, and already, she was starting to fall asleep once again.

"Shall I leave a note for your lady?"

"Don't bother. I'll do it myself."

-:-

This time, when Sakura awoke, she instantly snapped awake as she realized that she was not in her bed nor in any bed she knew. And she was certainly not on the couch she had taken as her own.

What the hell had happened? she wondered as she sat up quickly and observed her surroundings.

She was still clothed, so at least whoever had put her in bed hadn't tried to take advantage of her…But where was she in the first place?

She wandered out of the bedroom, noting belatedly that it was furnished very simply, wondering where she was and racking her brains all the while to remember something, anything of the past night. Bits and pieces of a conversation filtered through her mind, but she couldn't recognize the voices.

_Hm…_

She wandered into the kitchen, yawning, and took a look at the table. Spotting a suspicious paper, she plucked it from the tabletop and read it over once, stilled, then read it twice more.

_Wow. I'm so fucked._

Her instincts screamed at her to get out of the apartment ASAP, but her mother had drilled good manners into her from her earliest age.

_Can't leave just like that…_

She opened the fridge and noted that like many ninja she knew, this particular one had next to nothing in stock. There went her plan of leaving a nice meal out on the table as thanks. Nibbling on her lower lip, she thought of an alternative. She had some food at home…

Her mind set, she tucked the note in her pocket and shunshined out of the apartment.

-:-

Fortunately for the soon-to-be recipient of her cooking, she had much improved since her genin days—Ino saw to that; something about needing cooking skills to attract and, more importantly, _keep_ men. She thus prepared a nice bento and placed every tasty morsel with care, trying her best to make it look appetizing; she was quite satisfied with the result. She put the lid on the lacquered box, wrapped a bright cloth around it, and cleaned her working space.

_Done._

Happy with herself, she smiled at the package and walked out of her apartment with it in hand, careful not to jostle it so the food didn't get mixed up messily.

It was strange to walk in Konoha instead of jumping on the roofs, and even more so as she garnered many curious looks at her obvious bento.

She walked determinedly, doggedly avoiding any questions, and tried her best not to let the gazes get to her. Finally, she entered the building she had been heading for, made a beeline for the secretary, and put the bento squarely on the desk.

"Please give this to Morino-san, as thanks for yesterday night."

And then she was gone.

Yet there had been many people in the entrance of the building, and they had all been observing her curiously. And they had heard her. She was unfortunately quite sure rumours would soon spring up about her and Ibiki.

-:-

Ibiki looked up from his paperwork with a frown as something brighter than anything else he had in his office was deposited on his desk, right on top of his papers. He met the curious eyes of a smirking Anko and frowned even more, as she usually brought trouble along with her.

She was smirking a little too enthusiastically.

"What is this, Mitarashi?" he asked gruffly.

"_This_," replied Anko, pushing the package closer to him, "is a nice little bento prepared for you by your lady friend. When did you move in on the Hokage's apprentice?"

His eyes widened imperceptibly. _That_ he hadn't expected.

"Apparently, it's thanks for yesterday night. So? Did you have fun with the pinkette? _She_ must have been pretty satisfied, to come all the way down here just to bring you a bento."

He pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.

Still, that day, he ate a boxed lunch instead of buying something to eat on the go.

-:-

Sakura tapped a pen against her clipboard, humming under her breath as she read the notes the nurse had written.

"Haruno-san! Haruno-san!"

The cry startled her, making her look up at the nurse who was running down the corridor, eyes wild and terrified.

"T-There's a man waiting for you at the reception desk," stuttered the young nurse as soon as she stopped next to her.

Sakura looked the other female up and down, frowned, and nodded. A moment later, she turned on her heals and marched straight down the corridor. Whoever had frightened that nurse was going to see that she wasn't as easily intimidated.

Within minutes, she was down two floors and heading straight for the reception desk.

And then she saw _him_.

To her credit, she faltered for but an instant and steadily walked up to him.

Without a word, he held up a certain package wrapped in a bright cloth by one hand.

She felt her cheeks burn as every pair of eyes in the room followed her movement as she plucked the package from his big hand.

"Um…Sorry for the other night. And…sorry you had to come all the way here to give the box back to me. You…_could_ have kept it."

"Hm. One of my men is hospitalized and I need his report anyway. This was no trouble."

She smiled lightly, and they both retreated into the bowels of the hospital, chatting amicably—conversation came to them more easily than they would have thought possible. And as they parted ways, a last comment from Ibiki made Sakura stop in her tracks and look over her shoulder at the retreating form of the interrogator.

"Tell Yamanaka-san that her cooking lessons came to fruition."

_No way!_

For a while after, she tried to understand why her cheeks felt warm and her chest even warmer.

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Just a bit of harmless fun, since I so like to write IbiSaku. They just seem to have such potential, you know? Anyway, tell me what you thought. Should I expand on this?


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